Texas trumps all as the best state for renewable energy

February 14, 2019 By Arthur Murray

Texas enjoys a huge lead in electricity generation by wind.

When it comes to energy generation from renewable sources, Texas is the undisputed king. The state generated more than 6.5 million megawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources, according to the latest monthly data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Sources measured included wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, wood and wood-derived materials and other biomass – the six categories designated as renewable by the EIA. A megawatt is one million watts of power.

Now that all the technical stuff is out of the way, let’s look at Texas’ standing in the renewable power world. It leads second-place Washington by nearly 270,000 megawatt hours. No other state is even close.

Following is the top 10 and the megawatt hours those states produce:

State

Megawatt hours

State

Megawatt hours

Texas

6,502,749

Oklahoma

2.459,216

Washington

6,231,765

Iowa

2,004,038

California

5,169,859

Kansas

1,509,300

New York

3,316,814

Alabama

1,507,158

Oregon

3,271,305

Minnesota

1,269,090

Where Texas built its lead

Texas is widely recognized as a leader in wind energy – it generated nearly 6 million megawatts of its renewable energy total from that source in November. That’s nearly 27 percent of the U.S. wind energy produced that month and 175 percent more than second-place Oklahoma.

Following are the top 10 electricity producers from wind and the megawatt hours generated:

State

Megawatt hours

State

Megawatt hours

Texas

5,996,535

California

980,975

Oklahoma

2,179,071

Minnesota

977,414

Iowa

1,913,395

North Dakota

919,000

Kansas

1,501,324

Colorado

755,567

Illinois

1,121,544

Washington

601,263

Solar energy and Texas

The Lone Star State also is a leader in solar energy, ranking fifth for generation of electricity from it. First place belongs to California.

Following are the top 10 electricity producers from solar and the megawatt hours generated:

State

Megawatt hours

State

Megawatt hours

California

1,559,708

Florida

176,212

North Carolina

407,192

Utah

126,230

Arizona

323,070

Georgia

119,777

Nevada

280,215

New Mexico

75,747

Texas

230,032

Minnesota

73,176

Biomass and Texas

Texas also ranks well in the use of biomass: It is 10th, just behind North Carolina. Biomass includes plants (other than wood) that are burned or converted to liquid biofuels and animal (including human) wastes converted to biogas.

Following are the top 10 electricity producers from biomass and the megawatt hours generated:

State

Megawatt hours

State

Megawatt hours

California

229,071

Massachusetts

89,102

Florida

215,204

Michigan

82,371

Pennsylvania

163,483

New Jersey

70,274

New York

139,575

North Carolina

51,871

Virginia

99,973

Texas

50,468

Other renewables and Texas

Texas doesn’t rank as highly in hydroelectric or wood and wood-derived generation or at all in geothermal. But it’s still worth taking a look at those forms of electricity production.

Texas is 19th in the use of wood and wood-derived products to generate electricity. It produced 64,765 megawatt hours during November.

Following are the top 10 electricity producers from wood and wood-derived sources and the megawatt hours generated:

Following are the top 10 electricity producers by hydroelectric methods and the megawatt hours generated:

State

Megawatt hours

State

Megawatt hours

Washington

5,488,817

Tennessee

946,226

New York

2,723,632

Montana

736,325

Oregon

2,647,309

Idaho

720,881

Alabama

1,201,144

North Carolina

558,111

California

1,150,205

Arizona

486,815

Texas produces no electricity from geothermal sources. Following are the states that produce significant amounts of electricity from geothermal and the megawatt hours generated:

State

Megawatt hours

State

Megawatt hours

California

1,007,459

Oregon

16,325

Nevada

309,592

Idaho

6,733

Utah

40,245

New Mexico

1,383

Hawaii

27,803

US total

1,409,540

Fun facts about Texas renewable energy

Texas produces 18.6 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. That’s the 22nd largest percentage of any state. Vermont is first with 85.8 percent.

Texas produces 5.3 megawatt hours per capita, the 39th largest amount. Wyoming is first, with 1,112 megawatts per capita.

Texas could shoot up in the solar rankings and expand its overall lead in renewable power. The Phoebe solar farm, which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year, will be the state’s largest. It is designed to produce 250 megawatts.

Are you a journalist or researcher writing about renewable energy who needs to know more about historical data? Send us details about what you need and we’ll get back to you with an answer and a relevant quote from one of our data experts.